


Phone Call

by DonutHolesX0



Category: Naruto
Genre: Adult Content, Comfort/Angst, F/M, Insomnia, Phone Calls, Sad Ending, but thats angst baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:47:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27954104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DonutHolesX0/pseuds/DonutHolesX0
Summary: Mei can't sleep and her anxiety only grows as it gets earlier. Her only lifeline is one number to dial, but what problems would she create if she does?
Relationships: Ao & Terumi Mei
Comments: 6
Kudos: 6





	Phone Call

Mei lay flat out on her back sprawled out on her bed, her eye fixed on the lights that flickered occasionally on her ceiling. Turning over to her right side, it felt odd. Turning onto her left, it was too warm. In a moment of frustration she kicked off her blankets and laid down on her stomach, face planting into her pillow.

Nothing seemed to work.

This game of finding a shred of comfort to sleep had gone on for hours, ironically, Mei couldn’t find an ounce of energy to sleep. She thought she did at first, but all that happened was repeated cycles of the same thought, spinning like a leaf trapped in a spiralling creek.

 _Go to sleep. If you don’t you’ll regret it. So fall asleep. Now._ She tried coaxing herself, of course all for naught, it kept her up and ended up putting herself in a much worse position. It had been a while since this happened, not since she first became Mizukage, and most of the thoughts were those of excitement and anxiety about what she wanted to do first, and the many obstacles that would come up. Tonight there appeared to be nothing that would warrant such, the fact she didn’t have anything to worry about didn’t stop a growing ball of anxiety sitting in her stomach, each passing second felt agonising the more her mind kept repeating the thought of her never sleeping again.

Looking at the clock on her wall for the millionth time, its only been ten minutes since it turned 3. She settled on trying to smother herself with her pillow again, if she could cut off her airflow she might be able to knock herself out. But her grasp softened, bringing it back down to squeeze it against her chest.

Right now, all she wanted more dear than sleeping, is someone to talk to, or at the very least comfort her about her situation.

Sitting up and squishing her cheeks, she knew one person she could call. The only thing that ate away at the possibility was, should she? He should most definitely be sound asleep at this hour, the last thing he needs is her disturbing him.

Any attempt to stop thinking about it only enhanced it,

On impulse she sprung out of her bed and darted to her phone. Holding the receiver in her shaky hands If she did happen to inconvenience him she promised to owe Ao a lifetime of favours and tonkatsu.

Pressing each number slowly, she held her breath, and dialled.

It rung once. Then again. And again.. There was an unsettling heat in her stomach,. Her heart raced in her ears. It was too late to turn back now, what should she say? Did she even have anything to say to him? What if he gets angry-

The ringings stopped.

Her body froze as a very monotonous and tired voice grumbled from the receiver.

_“..Hello?”_

Already she felt the guilt kick her in the face. He picked up, why wasn’t she saying anything?

 _“Who is this?”_ He sounded annoyed. She had to respond.

“Um..” She finally muttered out, biting her nail.

 _“..Lady Mizukage?”_ His tone shifted as he heard her voice, _“Whats wrong? Did something happen?”_ He said sounding worried for her.

“No.. no nothings wrong. Well actually something is but..” She stammered.

_“Are you alright?”_

He fingers wrestling with the cord, wrapping it anxiously around her index finger, “Y-Yes, I’m alright.”

 _“Ok, thank goodness.”_ Ao let out sigh of relief, _“So what’s wrong? Is there something you need from me?”_

Mei felt her gut twist, she needed a reason for calling him, she owed him that. It’s a miracle he even picked up at all. “I.. I just wanted to ask you something.” She stammered, breathing deeply to hide her shaky tone.

“Did you.. Did you manage to fix the lights at your place? I know you were grumbling about that for the past few days and wanted to know if they.. were.. fixed.” She wanted to slap herself. Of all the things she could have asked.. She wasn’t surprised from the following dead silence that flowed from the receiver, if she wasn’t feeling so horrible already.

_“…Uh, y-yes I did. I had someone over to inspect it not long ago. It turned out one of the fuses tripped so he just replaced it. They work fine now.”_

She didn’t need to see his face to tell how confused he must be, the thoughts that must be running through his head. Had his Mizukage gone crazy? Or perhaps this was an abuse of power, testing how far she could go with him.. she resisted herself from slamming her head into wall, although maybe if she hit it hard enough it might be enough to knock her out. 

_“If that was all you wanted to know, I’ll see you in the morn-”_

“Ao, wait.” Mei called out, finally finding her voice. “I didn’t call you to ask about your lights. To be honest I.. I can’t sleep.”

_“Oh. Has this only happened tonight?”_

“It’s happened before, just not for a while.”

_“..Have you tried doing some stretches?”_

Mei’s eyes rolled into her head, “I’ve tried everything, nothing seems to work… I just didn’t want to be alone.” She bit her lip, that sounded so much worse out loud, “I’m sorry that sounded so selfish of me. Don’t worry about it, I’m sorry for disturbing you. I’ll see you in the morning.” Her hands however said otherwise, she gripped onto the phone harder than before, anxiously anticipating his reply.

_“Wait, Lady Mizukage.”_

The tensions in Mei’s shoulders let go, her heart fluttered and pumped adrenaline through her body when she heard his protest.

_“It’s not selfish of you, in fact I feel honoured that you trust me that much. I can talk as long as you need, Lady Mizukage.”_

She felt the sting welling up in her eyes, hiding a sniffle, “Thank you Ao.” Wiping away a few tears that managed to prick the sides of her eyes.

_“Is there anything on your mind in particular keeping you up?”_

“Well.. Not really. I was heading to bed as usual, then all of a sudden it was 3 in the morning.” She said trying to be humorous about it.

 _“I see. Well what happened last time for you to be kept up so late?”_ Ao continued to question.

“The last time this happened wasn’t long after I became Mizukage. I remember the stress was really getting to me at the time.”

_“I remember that day too. I always wondered why you made the unusual decision to drink so much strong oolong that day, your hands couldn’t keep still though your first meeting.”_

She forgot about that, “Darn, I thought I managed to hide it better.” Letting out a sheepish chuckle. “Did I fail to hide anything else?”

 _“No, I’d say you did well the rest of the day.”_ He replied rather playfully.

“Only ‘well’?” She cracked up at him. From there it came naturally to her. They spent long conversations reminiscing about their first meeting, debated about their favourite type of mist, they even talked about the latest of Kiri’s fashion with sharpened teeth. Ao admitting in his youth he almost made the decision to do the same, Mei knew she can use that on him later if he went too hard on Chōjūrō.

“How is it that I never knew these things about you?” She said stretching out her legs to change position, for the fifth time.

_“Well.. As your advisor my job is to ensure you’re in the right position to lead, and assist in all affairs that relate to the sake of our village.”_

“Or maybe you just decided to withhold such juicy information from me~” She teased, a resounding ‘tch’ replied at her, she didn’t need to imagine him rolling his eyes on the other end.

 _“Are you starting to feel better now?”_ Ao said, a little too optimistically.

The reminder threw Mei into a downhearted emotion, “Well to be honest I had forgotten about that for a second..”

 _“Oh.. I apologise, Lady Mizukage.”_ Ao said regretfully on the other end.

“Don’t fret, I guess this was just an.. unusual thing for me to deal with.” She said, turning her eyes back to her twiddling thumbs.

_“It’s not unusual, you said it yourself the last time this happened you were under stress. Maybe this time it’s just because.. I remember it happened to me once.”_

“It did?” Mei sat up intrigued by this new unravel of information, “When was this?”

 _“It was.. during my first few missions as apart of ANBU. I was such a cocky kid, the complete opposite to Chōjūrō, except the attitude. There were some times I wouldn’t respond well to my squad leader with the best manner, or listen to his instructions.”_ He said, with a soft chuckle following.

Mei could picture it. Ao at Chōjūrō’s age, a rugged yet handsome young man still full of youth and life, and he might have been a lot more clumsy than he is now. She coughed to contain a laugh imagining him so.

 _“Lady Mizukage?”_ Ao called for her.

“Oh, don’t mind me. Please continue.” She said covering her mouth to force down her giggles.

_“Ok.. uh.. After one mission we decided to camp in the trees, our squad leader mentioned the possibility of enemy nin coming to kill us in our sleep, so we were told to pick a tall branch to settle for the night.”_

“I remember having to do something similar, how did you secure yourselves?” She said laying herself more comfortable on the floor.

 _“We had our partners to sleep back-to-back with the entire time.”_ Ao said, a line of rustling signalled he did the same.

“Right, Heki was your partner during that time wasn’t he?”

_“He was yes. Anyway, for some reason I couldn’t sleep that night. Heki’s snoring didn’t help, but I just didn’t feel tired. All I could do to pass the time was daydream about strategies or quietly sharpen my kunai.”_

“How boring, sounds just like you.” She teased him again.

 _“Funny.”_ She could feel the raw sarcasm emitting from his tone.

_“This sounds childish, but I remember I started feeling worried about why I couldn’t sleep, my head was running nonstop questioning ‘what if I can never sleep again?’.”_

Mei let out a soft sympathetic laugh, thats not too far off to how she felt earlier. Or even now.

 _“In the middle of all that, I leaned my head back and saw a sliver of light appear through the tree leaves above me.”_ Ao’s tone lightened, Mei leaned into the receiver, eager to hear what he had next.

_“The clouds has cleared and in between the branches I could see the surface of the moon, and in that moment I started feeling calmer. I watched it make it’s way through the sky, and not long after that, I watched the sunrise too.”_

“At least something good came out of that.” She said sympathising with him.

_“I suppose, but I was unfortunately yelled at for the rest of the mission for yawning too much.”_

Mei couldn’t contain a loud snort, erupting into little giggles. Ao on the other end sounded pleased with himself that he made her laugh again.

 _“Oh my, it’s already 4:50, the sun will be up in an couple of hours.”_ He said, rather perplexed.

Already? Mei’s head darted to the closest wall clock, he was right, looking at the hands of the clock indicate t was nearly 5. She was shocked, it felt like no time had passed since she and Ao began talking.

“I hope I still have some of that tea in my office then. I have a feeling we both might need it.” She chuckled, quickly softening to a mournful sigh. Thats right, she basically forced him to stay awake all night with her, at the sacrifice of his needed sleep.

 _“I’ll be alright Lady Mizukage. I’ve survived days without sleeping, this is nothing.”_ He said sounding especially brash, but it lifted her spirit and got her eyes to roll slightly.

_“Speaking of moons, last nights was also a full moon I believe.”_

“Was it? I don’t think I had a chance to see it.” Mei huffed, a little let down. It had been a while herself since she saw it fully, though most of the time her mind would be in to many places to track the moon’s phases.

_“Well.. The sun isn’t up yet, it might still be there.”_

Mei perked up, “It might be.. hang on I’ll go check.” Quickly she put the phone down, rushing to her living room to peel away the curtains and opening the panel leading to her balcony. She scanned the sky to find it, spotting it not far on the leftmost side near the Kiri mountains, relieved that it was quite a clear night too.

Racing back to grab the phone, “It’s just poking out from the mountains, can you see it where you are?” She said while stretching her neck out far to look out of her window.

 _“Barely, hold on a second.”_ He grunted, the sounds of rustling scratched at the receiver, sounding like he had to wrestle his way to a window.

Mei had to take it away from her ear for a minute. In that time taking the phone and the receiver she carefully tread the so she could stretch it far enough, just reaching her living room. It couldn’t quite reach the right spot for her, but she could still see the moon where she was. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, continuing to admire it, it’s light had dimmed a bit but she could see the outline of its halo, and the beautiful round shape it kept itself in.

 _“There we go.”_ Ao exhaled, finally sounded like he settled down.

“I guess we’re lucky the fact it’s still there. It’s soothing to look at. _”_ She said pensively.

 _“It is.”_ He agreed.

The longer she looked at it the more relaxed she felt, her eyes started feeling heavy too. Her muscles relaxed as her eyes began to flutter, an almost euphoric warmth filled her head, “And it would be better if… You were here with me.” Mei’s blood shot cold, that short pang of euphoria dissipated, swiftly covering her mouth to prevent her from saying more.

 _“What do you mean? I am here, aren’t I?”_ Ao’s voice wavered at her statement.

Her heart thumped in her chest, “W-Well yes but.. I mean, here.. Sitting right next to me.” Her head beginning to spin, what was she doing?

 _“…I do too.”_ He replied, his voice shaking as he did.

As he said that, a rush coursed through her, the faint feeling of tiredness whizzed by her, it felt like something opened up as all her words came pouring out, “We.. We could watch the moon make it’s journey across the sky, just like you did. Without the snoring of course.” She heard a soft snicker, a wistful laugh following after.

 _“I would be very grateful for that.”_ Ao said with content, _“We could even watch the sunrise too.”_

“I would be right next to you, maybe lean myself softly if I ever got tired.” She continued, a gentle heat rose in her face.

_“I would let you, so that you don’t get cold.”_

“What else would you do?” She pressed on.

_“…Maybe my hand could find its way to yours, and I would hold onto it tightly.”_

“That sounds nice..” Mei swore she could feel a faint brush wrap over her hand. “Then I could lean my head on your shoulder, try to find some kind of cushioning in those arms of yours.”

 _“Then perhaps it would be better if.. I.. held you instead.”_ He said, sounding more assertive. Mei didn’t notice how fast she began to breathe, the sound of Ao’s breath in her ear also steadily fastened.

“I would press myself against you. Pull your arms around me.” Mei’s hand crept up her shoulder, replicating the imagining she told him.

_“I would hold you tight.. anything to help you feel safe.”_

“What else?” She mewled, a gentle heat rose between her legs, clamping her legs together tight to stop herself from squirming so much.

 _“Do you want me to come over?”_

Mei choked, the sudden realisation shook her. What were they doing?

“I.. I don’t know.” She stammered, the disappointed silence that came after felt like needles injecting into her heart.

 _“I apologise Lady Mizukage.. I shouldn't have..”_ Ao never sounded so ashamed. It crushed her.

“No, Ao it’s-"

_"It’s late, or perhaps early.. You should try to get some rest. We have a long day ahead.”_

“Ao..” Mei’s voice wavered, finding herself unable to protest.

“Thank you, I’ll try.. You better get some rest too.” The words cut at her throat, “I appreciate you.. for taking the time to talk with me.”

_“It was no trouble, Lady Mizukage. You can call me anytime, I am your advisor after all.”_

Hearing him say that filled her with ease, calming down her jittering nerves.

“Goodnight, Ao.”

_“Sleep well, Lady Mizukage.”_

With those last words, he hung up, finding herself alone again. Letting the receiver fall from her fingers she fell over onto her side, curling her legs into her chest, an intense flood of misery engulfed her.

Battling with whether first thing to do is destroy her phone, or come up with some excuse about her being tired, she didn’t know what she meant when they meet at her office, pretend as if the conversation never happened.

How did that happen? Everything moved so fast even she didn’t realise, it felt so good hearing him speak like that, it really felt like she had something with him, but was it? Or was it because she allowed herself to be so vulnerable to him, she took it the wrong way and allowed it to become something intimate, and yet he reciprocated..

The thoughts spun and stung her head, clutching her hair everything was so confusing. She couldn’t possibly do anything with him could she? She had to remind herself she was the current acting Mizukage, the one that would reform and shape Kirigakure into a new age. Anything about her and Ao would surely cause more bad than good. The fact they both stopped when they did indicated he knew it too.

What could she do now?

Uncovering her face she turned for comfort towards the moon again, but it had already left. What remained was the fading dark skies along with the dimming stars, lightening up into a faint light blue.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if this wasn't as happy as the other ones, I wanted to try out something :( but nevertheless I hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
